He suddenly lost his cultivation and have to start again. I don't mind when this happens but only when done well. Here it's just out of the blue in the most rage inducing way possible. He meets and save the twin of the girl he banged earlier and to repay him she drained his cultivation to restore her own. She's more powerful than him btw and after draining him she actually punch him for sleeping with her sister and act all high and mighty. It feels so cheap as I know this is just setup for the next arc. There's really no build up to him losing his cultivation and is just something that randomly happens.

Once again, out of the blue cultivation lost. Not permanent this time but more of a I must seal my cultivation since someone put a cursed on me. It was so random - He traveled to a new place when he reached mid stage Nascent Soul and some random ass cultivator picked a fight with him spiraling into a group gang up on him and someone put a curse on him. It's literally setup for the next arc which feels cheap as hell.

The story is about a kid who can't be anymore mediocre whether in looks or talents, got dragged into the cultivation world and step by step climbing up in power while bitterly trying to preserve his own life by making use of a treasure that does not increase his cultivation talent at all. The first hundred chapters as a form of prologue is slow, but the "slow" is just right. You can't expect too much from an all-round average kid, even being able to improve at his current stage is already a feast for someone like him.

What makes this novel worth reading:

1. There is this saying about the more hollow the drum, the louder it sounds. People with low intelligence and low talent are the best blabbers. I always think that the cultivation world where only power speaks volume, nonsensical verbal arguments from every opponent is too much too unrealistic. This novel precisely avoids that. In a world where danger lurks everywhere, where there is always someone stronger or has better treasures than you, it's easy to lose one's life. Even no matter how much backing one has, if they die then that's it. If everyone is a hollow drum, then Jianghu is nothing but a joke.

That's why it's delightful to see that the majority of characters (enemies included) are NOT brainless idiots with foul mouths that spout 5+ line paragraphs. When there is a need to fight they fight. Everyone (even demonic beasts) priorities their life and has certain degree of guard against any opponent even if they are stronger in power. Heck yeah that's more like it.

2. As mentioned MC is average in everything, even his personality (he is no villain nor hero). His treasure is prolly the only thing that makes him worth writing a story about. However, the spotlight shifts to him thanks to his incisiveness (one example would be his low resistance to beauty but refusing to suffer for it). He absolutely knows how to THINK. From the clever use of the treasure to making the right choices in tough situations, by constantly activating his brains he is able to stay alive and still withholding the bottom line of his principles.

This incisiveness doesn't come out of nowhere, but painstakingly learned from the first 100 chaps that meticulously built up his foundation knowledge of the cruel cultivation world. It's fun to see him grow and facing challenges with his own wit rather than resorting to glaringly blatant plot armor or deus ex.

3. No useless fillers so far *throws confetti*

Why you might find it boring: pill pill pill tool tool tool. That's the most of it for powering up so far. However it's only sensible. His treasure aids in pills, with his talent he won't get anywhere far without pills, and wouldn't survive long without good tools. Think of this as contribution to his intellect though, knowing how to use tools is a talent for survival. Not seeing much of fighting techniques is a little sad for me, but no OP shiny fancy name actions that kill in less than a millisecond is also good. I do hope to see good techniques later on though. Anyhow, I would like to conclude this by referring back to my first point.

To be honest I found vol. 1/book 1 to be very interesting, the MC was smart, scheming and I liked how he uses an assassin styled sword tecnique/movement skill combined with exotic weaponry to fight his teacher.

His friend was a decent side character, his teacher was a cool/badass antagonist with a lot of mystery revolving around him. I loved the Mo family arc, all the women were so fleshed out with interesting personalities. And then the writing and plot just went completely downhill from there. All the interesting characters from vol. 1 are forgotten, he hasn't used or even trained his assassin styled sword tecnique even a little since the mo arc. And there hasn't been even 1 interesting and 3 dimensional side character/antagonist in almost 60 chapters.

The story start well, you get your usual Xianxia setting in a mortal world at the bottom of the food chain, he somehow gain a bottle that magically gather energy from moonlight and transform it into a liquid that accelerate the growth of any plant, as we all know plants leads to alchemy & pills, so you can already see how OP and cheat this item is.

MC has a good temperament, hes not c*cky and is really cautious as anyone should be in this kind of world even thought sometime the author has to make him do s*upid decision to move the plot in a certain direction hes not himself s*upid, he can be obsessive about few things but that where the personality stops, he doesn't have anything that set him apart from the rest.

The fights... here is the big picture, as long as anyone in the same realm as you in this novel has OP items/weapons he will easily dispatch you, the MC doesn't rely on some special power or technique, all he does is get them OP items and spam the sh*t out of them to overpower anyone in the same layer of power as him.

The side characters ? there are few females that appear and get some weak spot light along the journey like his wife for example but they get removed from the plot for hundreds of chapters and basically have no characterization and as a reader you will hold no bond with them.

After the first thousand chapter you will start to feel the loopy plot, it start to feel boring and slow like a quagmire engulfing your mind, but it's not annoying enough to make you drop it so you continue reading and sink more into it, there are some exciting events along the road that will make you breath some fresh air and steel your mind into sinking more as well as some expectation of yours that you need to meet.

Is it alright to skip dozens of chapters in this novel ? yes you can easily follow the story even if you do that.

I will give this novel a 2.25/5

The whole story is all about one dude cultivating and doing his best to stay alive in the cutthroat world of cultivators. He tries his best to cultivate, ignoring most other things in life other than cultivating, trying his best to not have enemies, and pretty much try to stay alive. Every realm he cultivates into he gains extra lifetime, but still not an immortal, so he has to cultivate more. And when he becomes immortal, the story ends. Rather cliffhanger type of ending, but I suppose it was expected since the title already describes the story.